Saturday, January 04, 2014

ROSWILA'S (70th) BIRTHDAY CARDS w/Mini-Review of The Circle of Life Tarot

In the past I've posted my family of cards in The Tarot, from a deck I was currently intrigued with, on my birthday. Thought I'd do it this year for the first time in a few years. Turning 70 seems like the biggest deal since I turned 40. My body may sometimes feel ancient, but inside I'm still that forever teenager, wondering who I'll be when I finally grow up. (BTW, your family of cards can be determined using numerology, astrology, and your birthdate.)

The cards below are from The Circle of Life Tarot, which I just finished studying a couple of weeks ago. I bought it back in 2008 but somehow never got around to spending time with it card by card until just now. It's a delightful deck, if a bit of a challenge to my aging eyes with its tendency to pale colors and very tiny details. I also have never been all that fond of round decks for all the claim that they provide more of a variety in meanings (differing tilts and slants, if you will). I don't even read rectangular or square cards using reverses as I find plenty of variety in the upright images. Yet I still thoroughly enjoyed my journey through it's alternate worlds and intriguing artwork. The little white book that accompanies it has some unusual takes on the cards, as well, and it's images have a sense of humor at times. I may do a post in the future of just the cards that tickled me most, even as they addressed more serious issues.

And now, below, the cards that are "mine":

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'til next time, keep enjoying The Tarot, in whatever ways it comes to you in your life,

PLEASE NOTE: All photos on this blog designated as cards in Roswila's "The Found Tarot" are by Patricia Kelly (a/k/a Roswila)

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"...No student will ever exhaust the possibilities of this extraordinary symbolic alphabet, any more than one person can exhaust the possibilities of a language." BOTA Tarot Course

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"Tarot cards are like people. We get to know them more or less well, but never completely. And like people, they change over time and with experience of them. This is not to say we can't really know a card. Anymore than one would say one doesn't really know one's best friend or mate or lover. Simply that with these cards we form, as with people, many-faceted, living, changing relationships." Roswila

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MY TAROT BACKGROUND: I've studied, collected and taught Tarot for almost 40 years, collecting many, many notes about meanings, approaches, and layouts I've seen or developed for the cards. I do not usually post the more traditional meanings as I learned them, but only those that are -- at least to me -- less common as they occur to me (many with a decidedly psychological bent). I ultimately offer Tarot meaning and other Tarot-related posts hoping to contribute to the rich and constantly evolving universe of The Tarot. But even more so, to encourage you to explore the wide variety of Tarot art, and maybe even to learn to read the Tarot for yourself and reap its rich rewards.

IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATION TO BEGINNERS: What I share here is not intended to be a comprehensive look at any one card. These simply are what I consider to be somewhat less usual ways I've come across of relating to a card, both in terms of image and meanings. Books and web sites abound for the more traditional and common meanings of the Tarot cards. If you are a beginner, I highly encourage you try some of the links listed below, and as resources at the bottoms of posts here. Tarot is an extremely diverse and exciting field.

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"...faced with silent pictures destined to make him think, his task consists in discovering in them the things that are hidden within himself." – Oswald Wirth in "Tarot of the Magicians"

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"I like the tarot because it works like poetry and because you don’t really have to ‘believe in’ anything. It’s there to be used. The symbols are remarkably durable and beautiful; they float out to encompass all kinds of meanings.” – Alice Notley, poet

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"The Tarot is an ever progressing rendition or map of the inner structures of consciousness. It is a language in itself, a universal language, and its individual cards form a precise alphabet spelled out again and again in new terms to awaken those who seek to know the Self." -- John Starr Cooke, designer/channeler of The New Tarot for the Aquarian Age.

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"I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affection and the truth of the Imagination." John Keats, poet

About Me

Retired, I'm grateful to be able to indulge in daily blogging, taking digital photos (on which I work daily), writing poetry every day (mostly on my night dreams), and other creative efforts as the spirit grabs me. I also enjoy reading my poems and sometimes improvising on one of the musical instruments in my collection (e.g. didjeridu or kalimba), in our retirement community's regular Talent Shows. Occasionally, I offer a large exhibit (and sale) of my photos and poems in our community room, and display a few pix on our Art Wall.

"Ganesh dances joyfully,
each step out of now into now again;
each footprint filling to overflowing with kindness.
Remover of Obstacles, clear me out of my own way;
teach me how to dance lightly through life,
how to spill over with love."